So, according to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a journalist “is a : a person engaged in journalism; especially : a writer or editor for a news medium b : a writer who aims at a mass audience.”
So, what exactly is a journalist, friends? Help me out. You see, I don’t really consider myself a journalist. I see myself as a woman who writes devotional, inspirational, “stuff” about my life, with the main emphasis on my faith in Christ. One dear friend of mine says I’m a “scribe”. That sounds so much better than a journalist, don’t you think?
Yet, if you think about it, most bloggers write to “aim at a mass audience”, as the definition states. Why else would they be posting on public websites, if not to reach the “masses”? It’s not all Facebook social-interaction.
Do you think this “journalist” definition applies to bloggers as well? I don’t know. You be the judge. Are any of us really considered like writers for a “news medium”? I know, for me, I write with an aim for a mass audience. I’ve accomplished that a few times in my life, but I’ve never really considered myself a journalist. I don’t like research. But others in the SBC blog community do like research. Many are prolific readers of everything from Baptist Press to the New York Times. Some even sit around deciminating the 2010 United States Census data. Talk about mind-boggling. Some bloggers dissect news articles and social issues with such enthusiasitic precision and frequency, one would think they’d reek of formaldehyde.
We bloggers here at SBC Voices are guilty. We opine, apologize, theorize, analyze, and critique a bevy of subjects here. However, the vast majority of “recognized” writers who publish with nationally known periodicals might vehemently differ with the definition which could apply to Voices being a journalistic site. Perhaps they’d be right. What do you think? Would a bonafide “journalist” even want to be associated with we bloggers?